


Frog with a Dog

by WitchElbi



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-14 22:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4581912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchElbi/pseuds/WitchElbi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After all has been said and done, Eruka and Free slip out of Death City to take it easy. They get to know each other in a way that wasn't afforded them under Medusa's heel as they settle into a "normal" life, but a werewolf and a witch under the same roof is a likely magnet for all kinds of trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I can't begin to describe how long this first chapter has been in the works! Now that it's out, I'll hope that the rest comes along at a much quicker pace.
> 
> (yes the title Disney reference is bad and I should feel bad)

Somewhere along the edge of a bog in Oregon, a witch was huffing and puffing her way through the forgotten deer trails of a nature reserve. It had felt like a hellish eternity since the last time she was surrounded by conifers, breathing in a humid and brackish air as her feet squelched in the soft, muddy undergrowth, and boy was it taking a lot out of her. What happened? She used to be so fit! She distinctly remembered being able to sprint from the ranger’s service road to here and back without breaking so much as a mucus-y sweat, and just one-way was a good ten miles. Ugh, must’ve been her stay in that stupid desert for so long. But the cacophonous sound of croaking amphibians and humming insects rising up upon her approach to a structure not far from the water reassured the witch that she she’ll never have to return to that arid wasteland again.

“Geko, here it is. Pad, sweet lily pad,” Eruka groaned. She gave a limp-wristed gesture towards the somewhat-conical terracotta cottage in front of them. The frog witch’s mortal-world shelter was crawling with moss, other plant life, and generally overtaken by the abundant nature around it. With small, rounded windows of warped glass, and a door and porch patched together from driftwood most likely straight out of the swamp. If it were on a smaller scale it surely would’ve been mistaken for a garden decoration, looking like an overturned flowerpot and all.

With not only Medusa dead, but Kishin Asura defeated and the witches at a tentative peace with humans, it seemed like the perfect time to finally hightail it out of Death City. Only Eruka hadn’t left that witch-forsaken Weapon factory alone, much to the chagrin of her travel schedule. 

A deep, canine-like snuffling came from the large man who was casting a shadow over the witch, his quick inhalation ruffled the top of Eruka’s hat. “… This is where you live?” Free questioned. “It’s a bit on the cozy side.”

“I’m a bachelorette frog, geko, what else did you expect? I don’t need that much room to be comfy.” Craning her neck back, Eruka glared at Free’s bemused expression, but the severity of it was tempered by her overall exhaustion.

Even now she could clearly recall how that that stupid mutt whipped out the puppy-dog eyes on her back in Death City and whimpered on about how he might as well go back to witch prison since he had nowhere else to go. Even going so far as to bring in the fact that she technically had been the one to truly free him, so he owed a life debt to her or some baloney. He must have been using magic then, because there was no way a big guy like him could pull off such helpless and needy pleading unassisted.

Bringing the dumb oaf of a werewolf home with her hadn’t initially been in any of the various escape plans she’d hatched while still in Medusa’s control. It was great having his muscle and upbeat attitude for support during that stressful and action-packed time, it really was, but he’d stolen Mabaa’s eye, after all. Even with being part of the peace treaty negotiations and having a solid alibi in forced servitude, a lot of her other witch friends would turn their nose up at freeing and associating with a felon. Which was also why she wasn’t just going back to the Witch’s Realm. That’d just get messy in ways she didn’t want to deal with for at least a decade.

“Hey, as long as you’ve got a couch it’s enough for me!” Free exclaimed, chest puffed out. He didn’t seem the least bit strained from the hike, not even a sweaty sheen. Stupid fit immortal.

Slogging up to her house, Eruka didn’t bother to follow the stepping-stones to the porch. They were mostly buried under moss and mud, anyway. Mounted on the slapdash door was a small brass bust of a frog with a ring in its mouth to serve as a knocker. When she grabbed for the knob beneath it though, it blinked.

“Password, ribbit!” The knocker creaked. It probably intended to croak, but for how long it was left in disuse, one couldn’t blame it for being a little rusty.

Eruka squinted at her door. “…Geko?”

“The thing asked for a password,” Free repeated, ever so helpful.

“Incorrect password, ribbit!”

“Gekoooo, I don’t remember setting a password!” Eruka groaned. “Uh, I love frogs?”

“Incorrect!”

“Otama Jackson is backson?”

“Incorrect!”

“Double, double, toil and trouble?”

“Really, Free?”

“Incorrect. Intrusion detected.” The knocker began to glow, thrumming with magical energy that made Free cover his ears. “Magical destabilization in 3…2-”

“Wait wait WAIT! FROGS ARE GREAT AND TODD POLE’S A LOSER!”

The humming light stopped in an instant, but it left their ears ringing. The brass frog smiled.

“Welcome home, Miss Eruka! It’s been quite a while!”

The door swung open of its own accord. From what was visible in what little daylight there was left, everything was under dust and disuse. The furniture wasn’t even covered for long-term abandonment; a reminder of how abrupt and strict Eruka’s service under Medusa was. The empty silence was stifling.

Once he felt safe to uncover his sensitive ears, Free furrowed his only eyebrow at her, which scrunched his tattoo on the other side in the process.

“…Todd Pole? Who’s that?”

“A warlock ex-boyfriend. Long story short, he was a total toadie, geko. Literally.”

With cautious steps, Eruka entered her own home. Free couldn’t blame her for still being jumpy. But for breaking him out of prison, easing her worries was just the least he could do!

First things first though, he had to get rid of the squishy skin. Free rolled his shoulders back, arched his neck until he felt the satisfying crack, and then let his human shape melt away like glamour. Then he huffed, and he puffed, and he roared thunderous into the shallow shadows.

Eruka literally hopped into the air with a croak. “FREE! GEKO! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT DOING THAT?!”

“What? There’s nobody but us out here, and now you know there’s nobody but us in there.”

Though she stuck out a thin, froggy lower lip to pout, it wasn’t all that discouraging of his behavior.

Though he’d been stuck in prison and did that running around for Medusa as a human, he was a werewolf. Born and raised. He was more at ease in fur and snout than that restrictive mortal mirage. Free had tall ears to hear the chorus of crickets with, a large nose to smell the stagnant swamp with, and big teeth for catching a very nice dinner with later. Now if only he still had his tail…

“Are you just gonna stand in the doorway all day, geko? The knocker might try to blow us up again.”

“Oh, uh yeah. Sorry.” Free flattened his ears to get through the low doorframe and awkwardly shuffled his paws on the creaky hardwood. Dust was already collecting around his ankles.

While the dumb dog stood there like the idiot he was, a more calm Eruka had settled about finding some sort of light source. It took some rifling and digging, and at least a handful of sneezing fits, before she finally found a candle. She blew a puff of air over the wick, and a modest flame sputtered to life. The light it cast finally gave a clearer vision of the interior: a circular space interrupted by one wall to the left with two doors, while the right side curved around from the entry to a living room, to a kitchenette, to the back door right across from the front. ‘Living room’ was a bit generous though, as it was only a small couch with a smaller coffee table facing a fireplace. The opening of which was unsurprisingly like a frog’s mouth.

The witch groaned as she looked at it all. There was so much to do! She’d swear that there was nearly an inch of dust on everything. Eruka was already making a list of it all. The sweeping, the washing, the reorganizing, the fridge-

“Freeeee, what are you doing?”

Now that he could see what was what, Free had taken the liberty of flopping down onto the couch. He stretched and sprawled until his legs were hanging off one end and his head was lolling back on the arm.

“I’m gonna sleep.”

“Geko, but we just got here! There’s work to do!”

“Just tidy up around me.” He yawned, showing off teeth as long as one of her thumbs. “Can’t be that hard, right?”

“But I ca- aaaaand he’s out. Great.”

How could he just knock out like that? He had been talking to her a second ago, yet now his eyes were calmly shut, one of his arms was limp and hanging off the edge, and his furry chest rose and fell with each steady breath. Dumb dog.

Well, if that’s what he wanted, then fine.  Fine. He’d see soon enough that Eruka could be the worst kind of witch when she wanted to be. The kind that cleans.


	2. Chapter 2

**VVRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMM**

“ _HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!_ ”

Free jumped straight up into the air and vaulted over the couch, hackles raised at attention. He had devolved into a barking frenzy.

Eruka was less than impressed when she turned off the vacuum. Even with how the car fiasco had gone after she first broke him out of witch prison, she’d figured he’d become more accustomed to the 21st century than this.

“Really? Must we do this _every_ time, geko?”

Free whipped his head around. His face was almost as shocked as when she’d turned the vacuum on.

“What the _fuck_ was that?!”

She gestured at the machine, covered in scattered scribbles of sigils and runes.

“What the fuck _is_ that?”

“It’s a vacuum, and it’s for cleaning.”

“What happened to brooms? I thought witches liked brooms! And you have magic, why not just magic-clean the place!”

“One, we _used_ brooms – past tense – for transportation before magic and mortal inventiveness was as refined as it is now; two, geko, vacuums are just easier. No more bending over with a dustpan or wasting energy on just ‘magicking’ it away. That, and it’s really stupidly easy to make electricity with a small wind generator setup. Humans are dumb, but they have some useful ideas occasionally.”

“Yeah, okay…but does it have to make that _noise_?”

“Yes.”

Free whined, pinning his ears back, and sat down on the yet-to-be-cleaned floor. It was literally the biggest dog pout she’d ever witnessed. Though that wasn’t saying much, since those in the witch community were more feline inclined.

“Geko, what even freaks you out about it so much?”

“It sounds threatening!”

“Wow. The great werewolf Free, stealer of Witch Mabaa’s eye, bested by a _scawwy hoomin thing_.”

His growls were sore, but barely had the usual muscle behind it.

“Look, if I put a muffling charm on it, geko, will you stop being such a dumb dog and help me out?”

“Yeah sure okay just make it stop doing that.”

A marker was already in her hand as she bent down, finding an open space to draw near the vacuum’s intake.

“Geko! Now that that’s settled,” She capped the marker and stood up straight, “I need you to go empty out the fridge. Take it outside first, at least like 50 feet from the house, because it’s an absolute fungus nightmare, geko. I’m honestly shocked I didn’t wake you with the stench when I first cracked it open.”

As Free slinked off into the kitchen with a, “Eugh, what the fuck is _that_ ,” and a crinkling of his snout, Eruka set back to work.

The new charm worked like, well, a charm, and the vacuum’s rumble was more distant train than dog aggravating. She cursed herself out a bit for not thinking of it earlier. That it took Free’s freak out to make her realize the solution was even worse. Dumb dog. She’d been able to levitate her furniture just fine before, but the lack of forefront noise made a point with how much easier it was when she could hear herself think.

Now the vacuuming was going to go quicker, it meant she’d have extra time for giving the dishware and cutlery a rinse from the dust. Though would that cut into the grout scrub the bathroom needed? No, the otamas could help out with that since they liked playing in the tub. But then the laundry might get pushed off…

While she was mentally mapping her cleaning itinerary, a spider had scooted down from the ceiling to skitter across the coffee table. Eruka’s hand lashed out to catch it like a frog’s tongue and aptly stuff it in her mouth. Her absence had attracted quite a few insects. Good, she’d have plenty of snacks to keep the pace up in her tidying tirade.

 

It took most of the afternoon, some of the evening, and many rinses of both the fridge AND Free (“Oh no, geko, you are NOT coming in this house smelling like THAT!”), but the Frog Witch abode was practically unrecognizable when the werewolf finally went back inside. Every nook and cranny completely transformed into the clean and cozy cottage Eruka intended it to be. Especially under the bright lights, now that the electric generator was up and running again. There was a lot of green: soft limey greens, earthy and olive greens, and the couch he’d napped on before was more of a dark pine. Free didn’t quite think the pink and orange notes went together, but in accenting the all the greens, it seemed all right.

On Eruka’s orders, Free was sniffing through the upper shelves of the kitchen cabinets. Using that ‘giant snoot’ as she put it to root out any rotted, staled, or molded food. Which seemed to be pretty much everything at that point, even the canned stuff. Some of it had even expired _before_ she’d left for Death City.

“Nope, rice is gone too,” Free stated after taking a giant whiff from the unopened bag, “I think the humidity got to it.”

“Gekooo, Looks like we’re gonna have to shopping tomorrow instead. And I really wanted to start on the garden…”

Free brought his head out of the cabinet. “I could catch two deer?”

“No no, it’s fine, geko, a one-buck dinner should be plenty of leftovers, but I can’t live on pure protein like you can. I just don’t like going out to Portland where all the dumb mortals are. They’re so noisy. And dumb.”

Free’s brow furrowed, or as best as he could with his canine features.

“Why would we have to go all the way out there? We passed by plenty of towns with markets on the way here. And they smelled pretty good.”

“Because little towns are small and close-knit and not enough people are dead yet for me to go unrecognized, geko. Especially not Bend. Caused some mischief there like, 30-something years ago, and I still don’t think everything’s been _straightened_ out yet.

“Geko, at least this’ll give me a chance to restock on some potion supplies too. There’s this faun witch with an herbal remedies shop in the city that’s a front for an apothecary. I don’t know what it is about mammalian herd-based herbivores, but they’re just so- _nice_ , you know, geko? Like, what chaos are you causing by helping humans? Are you even witches? Well, whatever. She sells stuff, it’s good stuff, so it’s worth it.”

Free’s ear twitched. He wasn’t all that interested in what she was saying about their plans, but with his hearing he couldn’t tune her out much.

“…That all?”

Eruka stopped a moment to ponder. He swore he could see her literally going over her mental checklist, bit by bit to find a missed point or irregularity.

“Last thing, you’re going to need new clothes, geko.”

“What? What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Geko, your wardrobe is literally two shirts and a prison jumpsuit. All of which are really worse for the wear. Just, if you pass by the ranger station while you’re out, geko, and no one’s there, try to see if you can swipe something, ‘kay?”

He sighed, “Okay.”

With a monstrous werewolf hand, he ruffled the witch’s silver-blue hair as he headed past her to the back door left ajar. Now was the part he was really looking forward to. He stepped outside the marsh, nose raised to the wind in an effort to get the scent of his intended prey. It took a few deep inhales, but he soon got a trace whiff of something promising, and with little warning loped away into the darkening night.

Though it was fruitless to worry over the well-being of an immortal, Eruka couldn’t stop herself from hoping that dumb dog would make it back okay. His sense of direction sucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no words so do not ask about the delay okay life happens we have the chapter now we move on and hopefully chapter 3 will come along a lot sooner


End file.
